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Warren plans for smaller 2019 budget because of end of firefighter grant
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The city’s proposed $27.6 million 2019 general-fund budget is about $640,000 less than the $28.2 million 2018 budget partly because a federal grant for firefighters ends in 2019.
Warren Auditor Vince Flask says the city promised to set aside some of the revenue from the half percent income tax increase approved by voters in 2016 to keep firefighters working two more years after the fire department’s two-year U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters grant runs out in April.
The city has set aside about $1.1 million, which will allow the city to continue to afford the 15 firefighters that were added because of the grant through 2021, the year the five-year income tax expires.
The city will spend about $300,000 from the general fund for firefighter wages and benefits for the eight months in 2019 after the SAFER grant expires.
The city also will spend about $600,000 of income-tax funds for road work promised to voters when they approved the income tax increase.
“We’ve been able to work on roads that we didn’t have the wherewithal to work on in the past,” Flask said of the effect of the income tax increase.
City employees have not had any base wage increases for about 12 years, and health care costs are not expected to rise in 2019, so the 2019 budget will be very similar to 2018 except for the money for firefighters, Flask said.
“It’s pretty much status quo,” Flask said of the budget. “There’s no big surprises or capital improvements in this budget,” he said.
Generally, the city administration reviews requests for capital purchases throughout the year as they arise.
The Warren police and fire departments have reached the staffing levels the city promised residents when they proposed the half-percent income tax increase, Flask said.
The city lost income tax revenue in 2017 from the loss of the third shift at GM Lordstown, lost revenue again this year from the loss of the second shift and will lose more in 2020 from the announced shutdown of the plant in March, Flask said.
So far, the loss of the second and third shifts has not resulted in a drop in overall city revenue, Flask said. Other employers and other income sources have risen to make up the difference.
The city expects to lose about $53,000 of income-tax revenue because of the plant closing.
The closing will be a topic of conversation at a special council meeting at 5 p.m. today.
Some examples of Warren employee wages: A starting police officer earns $31,283 annually, $52,125 per year after 10 years. A laborer 1 in the operations department earns $19,718 annually, $32,864 after 10 years. Among operations jobs are plowing roads and maintaining parks.
The wages for police chief and fire chief are $88,224 per year. An executive secretary earns $47,576 per year at the top rate.